Mark Shirleypuerretrorsummuisoahcpuerretrorsummuisoahc

ahtnarolgestercore

DEVELOPED AND WRITTEN BYMark Shirley

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ARTISTSLuka Arh, Dean Kotz, Eric Lofgren, Anderson Maia, Chris Yarborough

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Mythras is a trademark of The Design Mechanism. All rights reserved. This edition of Mythic Constantinople is copyright © 2017. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part by any means without permission from The Design Mechanism, except as quoted for purposes of illus-tration, discussion, and game play. Reproduction of the material in this book for the purposes of personal or corporate profit, by photographic, electronic, or

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MYTHIC CONSTANTINOPLE: CONTENTS

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 4Religion 4How Mythic? 4Terminology 5Pronunciation & Glossary 5Glossary 5Disclaimer 6Bibliography 6

HISTORY & GEOGRAPHY 7History 7The Land 8Climate 8The Sea Of Marmara 8The Bosphoros 8The Golden Horn 9Shape Of The City 9The Seven Hills 9Water Supply 9Architectural Features 9Tenements & Houses 9Streets & Porticoes 11Forums & Monuments 11Fortifications 12The Nine Districts 12The Suburbs 13

BYZANTINE CULTURE 14The People 14Social Status 14The Demos 14The Mesoi 15The Dynatoi 15The Porphyrogennetoi 15Slavery 16Foreigners 16Venetians 16Genoans 16Other Franks 16Jews 16Turks & Arabs 17Non-Humans 17

Magic & Superstition 17The Evil Eye 18Language 18Daily Life In Constantinople 18Clothing 19Food & Drink 20Pastimes 20The Calendar 21Pascha 21The 12 Great Feasts 22Other Religious Festivals 22Non-Religious Feasts 22Family Life 22Life Events 23Residences 23Womens’ Roles 23Same Sex Relationships 23Charity 23Education 24Economy 24Coinage 25Prices 25The Guilds 25Crime & Illicit Activities 27Governance Of The Empire 27The Imperial Court 28City Governance 29Crime Prevention, Law & Order 29The Judicial System 30The Church 31The Organisation Of The Orthodox Church 32The Military 33The Regular Army 33Mercenaries 34Imperial Guards 34The Militia And The City Watch 35The Navy 36Private Units 36

THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 37

The Empire In Europe 37Epibatos 37Selymbria 37Mesembria 37Anchialos 37Mosynopolis 37Arcadiopolis 39Lemnos And Imbros 39The Despotates Of Morea 39Former Byzantine Territories 39Kingdom Of Cyprus 39Rhodes 39The Ottoman Empire 40The Turkish People 40Astomatoi 41Governance 41Territories 41Vassal States 42Ottoman Daily Life 43Education 44Religion 44The Military 45The Navy 47Eastern Europe 47The Kingdom Of Hungary 47The Kingdom Of Bosnia 47The Principality Of Moldavia 47The Italian City States 47The Serene Republic Of Venice 47The Mamluk Sultanate Of Egypt 49Western Europe 50Other Nations 50Kara Koyunlu 51Aq Koyunlu 51

CHARACTERS 52Characteristics & Attributes 52Culture & Community 52Character Culture 52Religion 52

MYTHIC CONSTANTINOPLE: CONTENTS

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Background Events 52Social Class 53Passions 53Careers 53Greek Culture 53Turkic Culture 54Frankish Culture 55Arab Culture 55Other Cultures 56Barbarian 56Civilised 56Nomadic 56Non-Human Characters 56Arimapsoi 56Astomatoi 57Blemmyai 57Kynokephaloi 57Minotauroi 58Skiapodes 58Tripithamoi 59Background Events 59Social Class 59Greek & Frankish Social Classes 59Turkic & Arab Social Classes 60New Careers 60Combat Styles 61New Combat Style Traits 63Names 63Affiliations 66Background Events 66

MONEY & EQUIPMENT 70Armour & Arms 70Armour 70Greek Fire 72Gunpowder 73Firearms 73Explosives 74Artillery Weapons 75

MAGIC 77Charismata 77Alchemists 78Exorcists 78Seers 78Pharmakopeiai 78New Folk Magic Spells 78Christian Magic 79Devotion 79Miracles 80Devotional Pools 80Non-Christian Theists 81Sorcery 81Sorcerous Corruption 81Spell Codices 81Grimoires 82New Sorcery Spells 83Other Magic 83Animism 83

Mysticism 84Relics 84

COMMUNITIES 85Affiliations 85Starting Affiliations 86Using Affiliations 86Faiths, Cults & Brotherhoods 87

CONSTANTINOPLE IN DETAIL 126

City Nodes 126Node Nomenclature 126Describing The City 126Randomly Generating A City Node 128Residences 128Businesses 128Churches & Monasteries 129Occupants & Bystanders 129Connecting The Node 129Typical Church 132Typical Tenement 133Typical Villa 133Typical House 133Navigating Constantinople 134Topics Of Conversation 134Akropolis (District) 135Blachernai (Suburb) 140Kainopolis (District) 143Palation (District) 149Pera (Suburb) 157Petrion (District) 160Platea (District) 165Stoudion (District) 171Venetian Quarter (District) 175Vlanga (District) 178Xerolophos (District) 184The Undercity 188

ADVENTURES 195Campaign Themes 195The City Of Adventure & Wonder 195Saviours Of The City 195On His Imperial Majesty’s Secret Service 196Ottoman Heroes 196The Athanatoi 196The Immortals 197Immortal Stories 201The Republic Of Dogs 202The Silken War 204Rebellion! 206 The Vampires Of Xerolophos 211Military Campaigns 212Campaign One: Siege Of Constantinople 214Campaign Two: Battle For The City 216

BESTIARY 217

INDEX 224

MYTHIC CONSTANTINOPLE: INTRODUCTION

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O imperial City, City fortified, City of the great king… Queen of the queen of cities, song of songs and splendour of splendours! ~ Niketas Choniates, c.1210

K alos ‘elthete, philoi! Welcome, friends! Welcome to mythic constantinople. The Queen of Cities sits like a jewel between Europe and Asia at the crossroads of the world.

Seventy thousand people make their home here, although this is just a tenth of the populace at the empire’s apogee. The streets of Constantinople were first paved two thousand years ago and it had existed a thousand years before becoming the capital of the Roman Empire. No city in Europe has been continuously occupied by the same (if evolving) culture for as long as has Constantinople, which is why it is sometimes called The Eternal City. Westerners call it the City of Sin, a place of exotic vices and fulfilled lusts, a den of decadence where everything can be bought if you have deep enough pockets. To its inhabitants it is the Holy City, bastion of Orthodoxy and home to three thousand churches and four hundred monaster-ies; the piety of the people evident in the gem-crusted altars and the gilded ikons. Constantinople is all these things, and more.

In Constantinople you can find travellers from all over the known world: mercenaries from far off England and Russia rub shoulders with merchants from Venice and Tunis; and delegations from the Ottoman Empire and the Mamluk Sultanate face off against each other while the iron-clad Knights of Rhodes debate theology with Neoplatonist philosophers. If you are lucky you many even see fab-ulous visitors such as the headless Blemmyai and dog-headed men. Holy men harangue the crowd in a tongue everyone can understand regardless of their race, and wizards struggle to entertain jaded pass-ers-by with their fire show, levitation or mind-reading spectacular. The sights, sounds, and smells of the city, so familiar to its inhabi-tants, can be overwhelming to the visitor fresh from the boat.

The year is 1450; or, as the Byzantines reckon it, the 6958th year since Creation. The weight of history contends with wonders of the modern world, such as the waterpowered blast furnace; letter press; the mechanical clock; the magnetic compass and other improve-ments in navigational aids; scientific advances in optics, hydraulics, and statics; and of course, gunpowder. This is an age of exploration, an age of invention, an age of intrigue, and an age of empires.

This is Mythic constantinople.

RELIGIONReligion is a major feature of the Mythic Constantinople setting. Even if you do not explore these themes directly in your game, the conflicts between Orthodox and Catholic Christianity, and between Christianity and Islam, are powerful shaping forces of the city’s past and its future.

As a group, the Games Master and the players should take care not to offend the beliefs of each other in real life. Remember that these are real-world religions which today have millions of followers and you should be sensitive towards the beliefs of others and not run stories that your players would find uncomfortable.

HOW MYTHIC?Each Games Master should decide the level of supernatural influ-ence there is in their game. The setting works as a purely historical setting, but the default is a moderate level of wonder and mystery, so for games without magic the Games Master will have to make a few adjustments. In the default setting, few people can use magic, but most know of someone who does – a local witch, herbalist, or holy man, for example. Mythical creatures might lurk beneath the surface of the city, but these are mostly tales told to frighten children rather than a daily occurrence. There are non-human races in Con-stantinople, but they are unusual rather than commonplace – people will stare should a dog-headed man walk down the Mese Odos, for example.

In a game where supernatural magic does not exist, all these things lapse into the realm of superstition. The inhabitants of Con-stantinople still visit witches and alchemists, but their business is a combination of fakery and pharmacy. The non-human races are reduced to tall tales brought back by travellers, and sorcerers con-fined to the pages of fairy tales.

If you want to make Mythic Constantinople even more mythic, then once again you will need to make a few adjustments. A game like this might have nearby nations populated by non-humans – per-haps Crete has a native populace of minotauroi, for example – and Folk Magic a common tool rather than a rare gift. In a high magic game, the Evil Eye becomes a real threat, causing ill luck and disease with just an envious glance.

INTRODUCTION

MYTHIC CONSTANTINOPLE: INTRODUCTION

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TERMINOLOGYThere is a bewildering mess of terminology in fifteenth century Con-stantinople. Contemporary inhabitants of the city think of “Greeks” as Ancient Greeks, calling themselves Rhomanoi (“Romans”) and their empire as the Empire of the Romans. However, these designations can be confusing for the modern reader so this book will refer to the Byzantine Empire and Greek culture in defiance of contemporary usage but in common with most modern source material.

Another potential point of confusion is the contemporary term for the people of Western Europe, who are collectively called Franks or Latins by the Byzantines regardless of their ethnic origin. Since the focus of this book is on the Byzantine culture, in this case con-temporary usage will be adopted except where it is necessary to make a distinction.

Finally, the difference between culture and ethnicity is worth bringing up. Due to the diversity of the Eastern Mediterranean combined with historical and recent conquests, these two categories can be confusing. A Bulgarian might be ethnically a Slav, cultur-ally Byzantine, but also a subject of the Ottoman Empire. Similar confusion happens on many of the Greek islands, where the Byz-antine Greek inhabitants are ruled by Franks; and in the Mameluk Sultanate where the ruling caste is ethnically Turkic but culturally Egyptian.

PRONUNCIATION Where possible, Greek terms have been used in preference to Latin ones, reflecting the language of the Empire in the fifteenth century.

PLURALISATIONGreek grammar is complex, and the pluralisation of words is not always straightforward. The most common plurals in medieval Greek are as follows:

φ ~a > ~ai; except where neuter, then ~a > ~ata φ ~e > ~ai φ ~es > ~es (a change from a short ‘e’ to a long ‘e’) φ ~on > ~a or ~ontes φ ~os > ~oi

PRONUNCIATION OF GREEK The conventional transliteration of medieval Greek words into Latin script does not always represent Byzantine pronunciation. The following is meant as a rough guide only; ultimately it does not matter how you pronounce a word as long as you can make yourself understood!

φ i, oi, and final -e are all pronounced like ee in tree φ -es at the end of Greek words is pronounced as ace in pace,

except in plural forms where it is pronounced as ess in less φ au and eu are pronounced respectively as af and ef φ b is pronounced as v φ c is pronounced as k, never as s φ ch is pronounced as in the Scottish loch φ d is pronounced as th in then φ g between two vowels is pronounced as the y in mayor; but

otherwise is always as in goat, never as in ginger. φ h at the beginning of words is silent and sometimes written as

an apostrophe φ rh is pronounced as r.

As a rule, Greek stresses the second to last syllable, or the third to last for longer words.

PRONUNCIATION OF TURKISHFifteenth century Turkish is written using the Arabic script. It has been translated into modern Turkish orthography, which has some letters with specific pronunciations. All vowels are short unless indi-cated otherwise.

φ ö is pronounced as e in learn φ ü is pronounced as e in new φ c is pronounced as j in judge φ ç is pronounced as ch in church φ g is pronounced as g in goat, never as in ginger φ ğ between two vowels puts a y or a w sound between them but

glides the syllables together. φ ğ following a vowel lengthens the preceding vowel; so ağ is

pronounced “aah”, eğ is pronounced “ay”, iğ is pronounced “ee”, oğ is pronounced “owe”, uğ is pronounced “oo”.

φ j is pronounced as s in measure φ ş is pronounced as sh in fish

MYTHIC CONSTANTINOPLE: INTRODUCTION

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Turkish tends to stress the last syllable of a word. Long words which are the compound of shorter ones have multiple stressed syllables.

GLOSSARYPhonetic pronunciation guides for non-English words are given in parentheses. Stressed syllables are given in capitals.

Allagion (all-AY-ee-on, Greek): the basic unit of the Byzantine army, consisting of 300 stratiotai (q.v.) and lead by an allagator.Azymos (ah-ZIE-moss, Greek): “without yeast”, an insult against Catholics who use unleavened bread for Holy Commu-nion, something that the Orthodox Christians find sacrilegious. Anglicised as “azymite”.Demoi (THEM-ee, Greek): the common people, singular demos.Devşirme (dev-shur-ME, Turkish): a tax laid on Christian com-munities in Ottoman territory, forcing them to provide young boys for training as yeniçeris.Dynatoi (thy-NAT-ee, Greek): the ruling class, singular dynatos.Frankokratia: the period 1204–1261 when the Byzantine Empire was under the rule of Frankish warlords. Constantinople was the home of the Emperor of the Latins.Gavur (djour, Turkish): “infidel”, an insult used to describe Christians.Kabbadion (kav-VATH-ee-on, Greek): A garment worn as court regalia and indicative of high social status in Byzantine society. It is a floor-length robe with fitted sleeves, made of embroidered silk.Kephale (keh-FAL-ay, Greek): the head of a district, elected from the people who live there.Logothetes (loh-yoh-THET-ace, Greek): literally “one who cal-culates”, used as a title for several senior ministers of the Byzan-tine court.Makellos (mah-KELL-os, Greek): a covered market.Mesazon (may-SAZZ-on, Greek): the prime minister of the imperial court.Mese Odos (MESS-ay OTH-os, Greek): the central street that runs through Constantinople. It divides into a northern branch and a southern branch at the Philadelphion, which terminate at the Gate of Charisios and the Golden Gate respectively.Mesoi (MESS-ee, Greek): the middle class, singular mesos.Presbyteros (pres-VIE-ter-os, Greek): an Orthodox priest.Restoration of the Empire, The: reinstatement of the Byz-antine Empire in 1261, when it was recaptured from Latin rule by Michael VIII Palaiologos. His dynasty has ruled ever since.Sack of Constantinople: invasion and pillaging of Constanti-nople in 1204 by Frankish soldiers, the most part of the army of the Fourth Crusade.Stratiotes (stra-TEE-oh-tace, Greek): a Byzantine soldier, plu-ral stratiotai.Theotokos (thee-oh-TOE-kos, Greek): the Virgin Mary; liter-ally meaning “the God-bearer”.

Tzykanion (tzi-KAN-ee-on, Greek): a game like polo, played on horseback.Vardariotes (var-tha-REE-oh-tace): a military regiment that acts as Constantinople’s police force, plural Vardariotai.Yeniçeri (yen-NI-che-REE, Turkish): elite infantry unit of the Ottoman Empire, recruited via the devşirme (q.v.). Anglicised as “Janissary.”

DISCLAIMERThis work is a fictional depiction of Constantinople in the fifteenth century. While best attempts have been made to present a histori-cal setting, this book should not be considered an academic work. There are gaps in knowledge on the specifics of life at the end of the Byzantine Empire, and in building a coherent setting the miss-ing details have been either assumed to be the same as a previous era or else details have been invented to fill in the gaps. Accuracy has been sometimes sacrificed for playability, and the focus has very much been on what would be the most entertaining details for a roleplaying game.

Not all anachronisms, omissions, and inaccuracies are deliberate. Some are undoubtedly accidental and the author takes full respon-sibility for any errors.

BIBLIOGRAPHYThe following sources were useful in writing this book.

Bartusis, Mark C. The Late Byzantine Army: Arms and Society 1204–1453. 1992, University of Pennsylvania Press

Dawson, Timothy. By the Emperor’s Hand: Military Dress and Court Regalia in the later Roman-Byzantine Empire. 2015, Frontline Books.

De Clavijo, Ruy Gonzalez. Embassy to Tamerlane, 1403–1406. Translated by Guy le Strange, 2004, Psychology Press

Harris, Jonathan. Constantinople: Capitol of Byzantium. 2007, Continuum Books

Rautman, Marcus. Daily Life in the Byzantine Empire. 2006, Greenwood Press